There are three characteristics of existence. This is an important part of the teaching of Buddha. The teaching of the three characteristics is part of what we might call the doctrinal contents of wisdom. In other words, when we talk about the knowledge and the understanding that is implied by wisdom, we have this teaching in mind.
The three characteristics of existence that we have in mind are the characteristics of impermanence (Anitya), suffering (Duhkha) and not-self (Anatma). These three characteristics are always present in or are connected with existence, and they tell us about the nature of existence. They help us to know what to do with existence. What we learn to develop as a result of understanding the three characteristics is renunciation. Once we understand that existence is universally characterized by impermanence, suffering and not-self, we eliminate our attachment to existence. Once we eliminate our attachment to existence, we gain the threshold of Nirvana. This is the purpose that understanding the three characteristics serves. It removes attachment by removing delusions, the misunderstanding that existence is permanent, is pleasant and has something to do with the self. This is why understanding the three characteristics is part of the contents of wisdom.
The first of the three characteristics of existence is the characteristic of impermanence (Anitya). If we look at our own personality, we will find that our bodies are impermanent. They are subject to constant change. We grow thin. We grow old and grey, our teeth fall out, and our hair falls out. Similarly, our mental states are impermanent. At one moment we are happy, and at another moment we are sad. As infants, we hardly understand anything. As adults, in the prime of life we understand a great deal more. And again in old age we lose the power of our mental faculties and become like infants. Our minds are also characterized by impermanence. This is true also of the things that we see around us. Everything we see around us is impermanent. Not one thing will last forever - not the office blocks, nor the temples, nor the rivers and islands, nor the mountain chains, nor the oceans. We know for a fact that all these natural phenomena, even those that appear to be the most durable, even the solar system itself will one day decline and become extinct.
This process of constant change of all ...
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...s understood, once interconnectedness becomes part of the way of seeing the world, then suffering arises from the personal concept of an independent self.
Anatta is the view that there is no enduring self. All phenomena are conditioned-have a begging and end-so there is nothing to which they can attach. Suffering arises from the illusion that impermanent conditioned states are permanent and can be possessed by a self. Moreover, there is no self or soul, which carries on after death. Instead we are merely a collection of groups of grasping which are in a continual state of flux. Rebirth is possible only because our desires and volition drive us.
Every living being, every living thing in this universe is subject to impermanency. The destruction of the whole universe is very certain. The body will be dissolved and no amount of sacrifice will save it. Looking to life we notice how it is changing, continually moving between contrasts. We notice rise and fall, success and failure, loss and gain, we meet honor and contempt, praise and blame, and we feel how our hearts respond to all that, with happiness and sorrow, delight and despair, disappointment and satisfaction, fear and hope.
Depending upon your definition of the present, it is hard to distinguish when the present time really is. Trying to pinpoint the exact time of “now” seems to be impossible because when we actually finish saying “now” it is already in the past. It is believed by many people that when a human dies for example, they cease to exist. In this essay I will be looking at two key concepts that relate to the topic of existence and the present time. These concepts are ‘Presentism’ and ‘Eternalism’. I will begin the essay by outlining what ‘Eternalism’ is and how its followers may see the present in a different way because of it. From here I will propose some of its weaknesses followed by objections to these weaknesses. The second main concept will be ‘Presentism’ which will be the opposing argument that suggests that things only exist in the present time instead of the past, present and future. After giving this argument, I will also be giving objections and counters to it. I, myself believe that there is a present time and existence, as we I find it difficult to believe that something exists in the same way once it has died and decomposed.
“In the West, we think of each human life as solid and discrete, beginning at conception and ending at death. The Buddhist view is of waves appearing and disappearing endlessly on a great ocean of life energy. When cause and effect combine in a certain way, a wave arises, appearing...
he comes to term with three certainties: the existence of the mind as the thing that thinks,
Thay teaches us about impermanence and how it expresses in real life. Everything is impermanent. Thay uses the example of the flower and the seeds to explain this idea. When we look at the flower, we see the flower; but it was actually a seed and then became a flower. It is not just disappearing, but transferring into another form .Just like us human, we were made from the minerals; therefore, these are our ancestors. We have to see it this way so that we can protect these things as we protect our ancestors. Thay wants us to practice an idea that when we see everything in life, we have to respect and look deeply into that, not just the outside. People from other religions will have differ...
The word interbeing explains the concept of emptiness through the idea of changeable and interdependent existence. The prefix “inter-” defines the changeable and interdependent nature of things and the verb “to be or being” means existence. According to the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra, “Form is emptiness, and emptiness is form.” Emptiness does not mean that things do not exist but rather it means that things cannot exist by themselves alone. Thich Nhat Hanh uses an interesting example of paper to explain changeable and interdependent existence of things. Paper cannot exist without the trees from which it is made. Trees cannot exist or grow without rainwater which comes from clouds. Every aspect of existence is interrelated to each other. Paper and trees, trees and rain, rain and clouds are all manifestations of interbeing with each other.
... nothing disorderly, nothing foreseen. All bear the marks of the wisdom of the Creator, and show that they have come to life with the means of assuring their preservation." (Schaff, 2004)
The third meditation starts with a bit of reviewing with what he discussed in the first two meditations. He is still doubting everything else that is around him, but is convinced/he knows that he himself exists. He is trying to find certainty of what he knows is an undisputable fact. He comes up with the fact that he exists, because he is a thing that thinks. He decides to further examine himself so he comes up with an idea of what he is “I am a thing that thinks, i.e. that doubts, affirms, denies, understands some things, is ignorant of many others, wills, and
The First Noble Truth (dukkha) is that life is “suffering.” Bodhi explain, “The reason all worldly conditions are said to be “dukkha” is ina...
In his sixth meditation must return to the doubts he raised in his first meditation. In this last section of his sixth meditation he deals mainly with the mind-body problem; and he tries to prove whether material things exist with certainly. In this meditation he develops his Dualist argument; by making a distinction between mind and body; although he also reveals their rather significant relationship.
Dukkha is the first of the four noble truths of Buddhism. The word means suffering, but just
Hinduism and Buddhism are undoubtedly different than any other religion that we have studied. Some might even dispute whether or not they are a religion, or rather a way of life or philosophy. I will use the Merriam Webster definitions of religion to depict whether or not Hinduism and Buddhism should be understood as a religion. The There is one commonality between Buddhism and Hinduism is not a central feature of the other major religions: Reincarnation.
Buddhism can be indirectly defined by using Ninian Smart’s Seven Dimensions of Religion. Ninian Smart pioneered the idea of secular religious study (Ninian Smart). In 1968, he tried to define religion by defining the shared “dimensions,” or properties, rather than creating a dictionary definition of the word. Initially, there was six dimensions, but in 1998, he updated the list to seven (Smart, Blackboard, Religion 100). The first dimension is ritual and practical, which are the practices directly involving a religion, such as prayer and weekly worship services. The second is an experiential and emotional dimension, which are the emotional experiences of the central figures or the feelings a practitioner gets, such as the mystical feeling of “being born again.” The third is a narrative or mythic dimension, which is the stories within a religion about the events surrounding the creation or important events, such as the stories in the Christian Bible or Islamic Qur’an. The fourth dimension is a doctrinal and philosophical, are the texts or philosophies, which bind its practitioners to a particular view of life, such as the certain actions that lead to a path of salvation. The fifth dimension is ethical and legal, which is a set of ways a practitioner should live their life, which is influenced by the narrative and doctrinal dimensions, such as the several hundred rules within the Judaism or Shari'ah law in Islamism. The sixth is social and institutional, which is the dimension that seeks to capture how a religion is organized by, and interacts with, its practitioners, such as the vast interconnected churches of the Roman Catholics, as well as individual members, such as priests and prophets. The seventh and final dimension material,...
The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism capture ethos of the spirituality and its teachings. By just these four lessons, Buddha preaches the principles of tranquility within meditation of mere concentration. From these truths he developed a guidance referred to as the Eightfold Path, a series of principles that lead to awakening when practiced and understood. He preaches that inevitable suffering comes from desire, however he concludes with a solution to a life lived in nirvana. The first two of the Four Noble Truths are Dukha and Avidya, focusing on the primitive presence of suffering within day to day life. The other two are Nirodha and Magga, contributions to having faith that solvents for all suffering do exist and how it is accomplished. The combination of each understanding is a simple recipe to ultimate salvation, hence the contribution to development of self awareness and happiness within cultures across the map.
...s death; there will be no mere re-incarnational transfer. Thousands of times each day unique, never-to-be again, individual beings have their one and only chance at life terminated." 7
When I first read this topic, the word that jumped out at me was “change”. It reminded me that nothing stands still. We are all constantly moving forward, transforming, evolving and changing. We would not be able to advance if we just kept still, not wanting to move, we would get left behind. Time does not wait for anyone, the old dies and is replaced with the young and new. A bud grows into a flower and then into a fruit, a young girl changes into a woman. Morning changes to noon, and then into night and the whole cycle starts again which makes me think that no change is permanent. Change is subject to change.